Saumur but so far

A good night’s sleep, clear blue sky, just a 40 mile roll alongside the Loire to Saumur..what could go wrong?

Having bought my breakfast in Angers I stopped to eat it by a lake after about five miles only to realise I should have been riding round the other side of the vast expanse of water. That explained the horrible pitted nature of the cycle path I was trying to negotiate. This section of La Vélo Francette is shared with another, more established route, La Loire a Vélo and I certainly noticed the difference in the surface and in particular the route signs. At one stage I was so lost it took me 15 minutes to find the river again.

The temperature was rising and reached 30 degrees in the afternoon and was sapping my strength. Worse still I could no longer ignore an ache in my right knee which hurts especially when I am putting in extra effort, such as going uphill. I was therefore relieved when I finally reached Saumur and the Kyriad Hotel.

About an hour later Ros arrived, which cheered me up. She had driven down from Le Havre but I was lucky she got here. At one motorway toll booth where, due to the right hand drive car, she had to walk round to get the ticket. She thought the man getting out of the car in the queue behind was going to tell her to hurry up, but instead he asked her to go to Paris with him because he liked her smile!